Jan Both

Pieter van Dorp;
His deceased sale, Leiden, Luchtmans, 16 October 1760;
M. L. Lapeymère, Receveur général des contributions;
His sale, Paris, Lacoste, 19 April 1825, for 16,300 fs.;
Boursault collection, Paris, 1835;
Acquired from the above, along with the entire collection, by Mr. Arteria on behalf of Edmund Higginson, Saltmarsh Castle, Herefordshire, before 1842;
His sale, London, Christie's, 4-6 June, 1846, lot 216, for £336 to Rutley;
Humphrey Mildmay (1794-1853), Shoreham Place, Sevenoaks;
By descent to Henry Bingham Mildmay (1828-1905);
His sale, London, Christie's, 24 June 1893, lot 8;
Alexander Dennistoun, Golfhill;
His deceased sale, London, Christie's, 9 June 1894, lot 55, for £210 to A. Wertheimer, as 'J. and A. Both';
Kingham Hill School, Oxfordshire, no. 6;
Their sale ("By order of the Kingham Hill Trustees"), London, Phillips, 9 December 1980, lot 63, where acquired by the present owner.

London, Royal Academy, 1876, no. 126, as 'J. and A. Both' (where lent by H. Bingham Mildmay).

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol. VI, London 1835, pp. 190-1, no. 56;
J. Smith, Supplement to the Catalogue Raisonné..., London 1842, p. 735, no. 18;
A descriptive catalogue of the gallery of pictures, collected by E. Higginson, Esq. of Saltmarshe, London 1842, no. 137;
G.F. Waagen, Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain, vol. IV, London 1857, p. 342;
C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und Kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der Hervorragendsten Holländischen Maler, vol. IX, Esslingen 1926, p. 481, no. 208.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The canvas is lined and the paint surface is slightly raised but stable but there have been some previous pin-prick losses to the sky in particular; there is a restored loss to the top right hand corner. There is a horizontal band of clumsy restorations from the right hand edge through to the central tree. The fore and mid grounds are in an untouched condition with only minor abrasion to some of the more delicate areas, such as the mules legs and the darker recesses of the rocks, lower right. Generally, the paint texture is well preserved. The removal of the more recent varnish, and the remains of the older one, would improve the tonality. Offered in a dark wood frame with a gilt sight edge, in good condition."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This picture was once part of the celebrated Mildmay collection. The painting was acquired by Humphrey Mildmay (1794-1853) who had married Anne, daughter of Alexander Baring, later 1st Lord Ashburton, in 1823. In so doing he joined one of the great families of collectors of Old Masters in England and it is doubtless as a result of this match that he acquired his own taste for collecting old masters. His son, Henry Bingham Mildmay, was an even more avid collector, purchasing large numbers of Old Masters at the great Hamilton Palace Sale in 1882 and at the Blenheim Sale at Christie's in 1886. Much of the Mildmay collection, including the present work, was sold in 1893 in reaction to a crisis at Baring's bank in 1890. The remainder of the collection was sold in 1997.